Netflix Says Ad Tier Has Surged to 70M Users, Christmas Day NFL Games Sold Out

Netflix says that users of its advertising tier have surged in the past six months, and that the ad tier now has 70 million monthly active users globally. That is up from only 40 million just six months ago, and up from 15 million a year ago.

The company also reiterated that more than half of new users are subscribing to an ad tier, helping to drive that growth.

The company disclosed the new numbers on the two year anniversary of launching the ad tier, and also made a number of other advertising-related announcements, in a post authored by advertising chief Amy Reinhard.

For starters, the streaming giant says that it has sold out of advertising inventory during its two Christmas Day NFL games, with FanDuel and Verizon among the sponsors. FanDuel will be the official sportsbook partner, with an in-game segment featuring on-air talent; Verizon, meanwhile, will be the kickoff sponsor.

Netflix also says that it is working with Nielsen to help measure viewership of the games, and will incorporate first-party streaming data to help do so (Nielsen recently received accreditation to use some first-party data to help it measure live streaming events, including Amazon’s Thursday Night Football).

The company is also working with VideoAmp on measurement, including live viewership, which will begin with WWE Raw in January.

After previously announcing that it would move away from relying on Microsoft and would build its own advertising tech stack, the company says that Canada is now operating solely on in-house ad tech, and that it will roll it out in its global ad markets next year.

Netflix also says it has lined up a number of presenting sponsors for the upcoming second season of Squid Game, including Kia in South Korea, the first time a title has had a single presenting sponsor in that country. And it has formally launched programmatic guaranteed buying in the U.S.

The growth in advertising comes at a pivotal moment for Netflix, given its major push into live programming. The upcoming Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match is likely to be the most-watched boxing match in history, and the Christmas Day NFL games are being marketed as a major event featuring the biggest live programming on TV.

And next year, WWE Raw will bring a more regular cadence of live programming to Netflix. All of these events are meant to drive live viewership and engagement, of course, but also ad dollars, with live events simply able to attract more premium sponsors.

Netflix said in its last earnings call that advertising may not be a major driver of revenue until 2026, but with 70 million users and a base that is growing fast, it could become a major player in streaming ads sooner rather than later.